United Community Bank Has $3.22 Million Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

United Community Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 54,409 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,365 shares during the period. Cisco Systems accounts for about 1.3% of United Community Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. United Community Bank’s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $3,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 9,029,594 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $480,555,000 after purchasing an additional 52,711 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Hollencrest Capital Management grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 2.8% during the third quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 7,651 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 11.2% during the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 13,279 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $707,000 after purchasing an additional 1,341 shares during the period. Finally, Leavell Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cisco Systems by 29.8% during the third quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 83,559 shares of the network equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,447,000 after purchasing an additional 19,169 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Charles Robbins sold 31,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.41, for a total value of $2,060,025.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 736,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,413,489.20. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Maria Victoria Wong sold 586 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.69, for a total transaction of $34,392.34. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 50,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,979,515.23. This represents a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 67,348 shares of company stock valued at $4,318,181 over the last ninety days. 0.01% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cisco Systems from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Cisco Systems from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $66.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Cisco Systems in a research note on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.63.

Cisco Systems Price Performance

Shares of CSCO opened at $63.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $254.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.79. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.50 and a 1-year high of $66.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The network equipment provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by ($0.14). Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 26.08% and a net margin of 16.96%. On average, research analysts forecast that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cisco Systems declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $15.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network equipment provider to repurchase up to 6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cisco Systems Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a $0.41 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a positive change from Cisco Systems’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.56%. Cisco Systems’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.62%.

Cisco Systems Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.